National Guard troops should have never been deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border, Rep. Anthony Brown, a veteran and member of the Armed Services Committee, said Monday.
"As early as this spring when National Guard units were ordered to the border, I took issue to that," the Maryland Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "I had an amendment saying if the administration is going to order the National Guard to the border there needs to be a strategy, cost and benefit to the military. They didn't do that."
The deployment of active-duty soldiers, is a militarization of the border, Brown continued, and it is "demoralizing to the troops."
"They recognize there's no real mission for them on the southwest border," said Brown. "They're facing a migration of people who are fleeing violence and crime. They're tired, they're hungry, they're scared and yet, we've have a militarized presence at the border."
Further, Brown said he thinks the troops should be home for Thanksgiving and for Christmas.
"I have deployed and I was in Iraq over Thanksgiving, over Christmas," said Brown. "I visited troops as a member of Congress during the holidays and what I do understand about soldiers, sailors, when you deploy them on a credible mission and they're away from their families they get it, they understand it. They're ready to do their job. When you send them to the southwest border like the president has done, on a dubious mission, that's demoralizing and it impacts readiness."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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